How is Tik Tok Tackling Climate Change Misinformation? | Newsround

#Newsround #tiktok #misinformation #climatechange

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Videos on Tik Tok can make us laugh cry and even teach us interesting things about the world but every now and again posts containing harmful misinformation can end up on our for you pages. In the manner in which they speak some of the people posting or sharing these videos believe climate change to be made up or exaggerated.

Climate scientists agree that human activity is responsible for the rapid climate change of the last hundred years evidence shows that the increasing use of fossil fuels has led to a rise in CO2 and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which has led to global warming rising sea levels and made extreme weather more intense and more likely.

Doug is a climate scientist at the Met Office that's the UK's National Weather Service after seeing so much misinformation on social media he decided to take action by posting his own videos about the science of climate change that we're going to have to get used to.

Earlier this year Tik Tok promised a crackdown on so-called climate deniers and says it has suspended accounts that frequently share false information however the BBC put this policy to the test they found 365 videos that broke the rules many of them claimed man-made climate change wasn't real the BBC Click team flanked the videos to Tik Tok saying they contained harmful misinformation and gave the social media platform time to react but almost 95 of the videos were still on Tik Tok over 24 hours later. What's more these posts had a combined 30 million views between them Tik Tok say they have now permanently removed the content and accounts that the BBC found.

Tik Tok also said they're working with fact checkers and that people searching for content around climate change are shown a link to places where they can find correct information but as Tik Tok are finding keeping misinformation off social media isn't an easy task when there are 600 million daily users of the app however many climate change scientists think it's important that misinformation is kept off social media and the facts are shared as widely as possible.

Please visit www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/13865002 for tips about what to do if you are feeling sad about what you've seen, heard or read.

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